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NEWS // GROW

A Christian kind of
woke: What the Church
can do to redeem social
justice
by Theresa Tan // October 18, 2024, 4:56 pm

Associate Professor Suzanne Choo, author of When Woke

Goes Broke, explains that wokeism is not a bad thing when
it is being attuned to the injustices present in society and
doing something about it. All photos from Suzanne Choo
unless otherwise stated.

   

I
n August this year, entrepreneur Elon
Musk shared a video clip on his social
media platform X and declared it
“wisdom”. It attracted over 30 million
views.

It was an excerpt of an interview with

Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in
which he talked about woke culture making life
“very burdensome” instead of bringing
cohesiveness and solidarity to a society.

Wokeism, or woke culture, has become a

defining aspect of the era we live in, and in
recent times has received increasing backlash.
The term refers to being attentive to social and
political injustices, particularly in relation to
issues of race, gender and inequality.

“It is one of the major movements of our time,”

said Suzanne Choo, author of When Woke Goes
Broke: Redeeming Social Justice for the
Church.

Suzanne is an Associate Professor at the

English Language and Literature department at
the National Institute of Education, Nanyang
Technological University.

When Woke Goes Broke is the first book in

GraceWorks’ new series The Gospel Way, edited
by Leow Wen Pin. The series helps churches
answer the call to be missional towards an ever-
evolving world.

When Woke Goes Broke is the first book in The

Gospel Way series, written by Suzanne and edited by
Leow Wen Pin (right).

In her book, Suzanne briefly discusses the rise

of woke movements in the West such as Black
Lives Matter and #metoo. She also analyses
these movements in relation to influential
philosophies such as postmodernism.

A crucial part of the book is her reflection on

what a Christian approach to social justice
would look like.

“Wokeism is not just a Western thing,” she told

Salt&Light. “The #metoo movement, for
example, was observed in various parts of Asia
including South Korea and Taiwan. In
Singapore, issues of sexual misconduct in our
local universities led to calls for greater
institutional accountability.”

But what does this have to do with Christians,

you may ask?

“I realised that a lot of young people are very

interested in social justice these days,” said
Suzanne.

“Woke culture and woke language is also a very

important part of the social justice movement.

“And because social justice is a vital part of

what the Bible calls us to do – to help the
fatherless, the poor, the widows, the sick, the
foreigners – I became interested in finding out:
What, then, is an appropriate Christian
response? How might a Christian response to
social justice be di"erent from some of the
aggressive forms of woke culture that we see in
the world today?”

Be like Jesus: CARE

Secular woke culture has contributed to some
transformative changes in society, but there is a
form of aggressive woke culture that has
developed.

Suzanne uses an acronym for the qualities of

this aggressive woke culture: SADD, which
stands for self-righteousness (assuming they
are right and others are wrong), aggressive
behaviour (shaming and cancelling others),
disinformed (basing responses on half truths or
post-truths, and disengaged (seeing the other
party as the enemy).

Christian woke is di"erent, said Suzanne. “In

the Bible, Christians are called to be woke to
injustices. I use the acronym CARE:
Christlikeness, being attuned, redemptive at its
core, and engaged with culture.”

She expanded, “Jesus is described as being full

of grace and truth. Likewise, Christians should
pursue both aspects in our daily lives and
ministries. We must exercise grace in our
relations with others. We must also be
committed to seeking truth.

“Second, we need to be attuned to the

movements and ideologies of secular culture.
To pursue truth means Christians must discern
underlying ideologies, motivations and values.

“Third, at the heart of Christian social justice is

redemption. When God calls out sin, it is to
redeem the sinner, not to reject him or her.

Finally, Christians should be engaged with

culture. “We cannot be disconnected from
others, even those who may have di"erent
views from others,” Suzanne pointed out.

Suzanne presented the di!erences between SADD

and CARE woke at the Intentional Disciplemaking
Church Conference in September. Photo by
Covenant EFC – Jonathan Tan

Why should we be woke?

If Christians are to be salt and light of the world
(Matthew 5:13-14), they need to practise the
kind of justice characteristic of God, Suzanne
writes in her book.

But “on the flip side of being woke, some

Christians don’t care about social justice,” she
told Salt&Light.

“In whatever sphere of influence you are in the

world, you can be involved in tackling injustice.
Maybe you’re in a position where you can shape
policy and you can make your policies more
equitable.

“In every sphere we can get engaged,” she

added. “We should be sensitive to the injustices
around us particularly those that are systemic.”

She points out that injustice goes beyond

physical forms. “The more powerful kinds of
injustice are invisible, implicit in the systems
that we inhabit and the cultural norms we
internalise. Christians can play a role in
influencing these systems so that they are
fairer, more just, so that they uplift those who
are marginalised or defenceless.

“Because in the Bible, we glimpse God’s heart

for the widows, the orphans, the poor. I believe
we must have that special compassion for the
marginalised.”

To call in the sinner, not to cancel

One of the defining elements of wokeism is
cancel culture, where someone who is accused
of acting or speaking in an unacceptable
manner is called out, boycotted and publicly
shamed.

“The cancelling of people is not what the Bible

teaches,” stated Suzanne.

“Once, God wanted to cancel the human race

(Genesis 6:7). But in Genesis 8:9, He made a
covenant with Noah that never again would He
destroy all humanity.

“If God made a covenant to not cancel humans,

who are we to do so? Christ is the prime
example of one who was unjustly cancelled. He
took the injustices of sin upon Himself to open
the way for the restoration of humanity to God.”

 

“In the Bible, we glimpse

God’s heart for the
widows, the orphans, the
poor… We must have that
special compassion for
the marginalised.”

But when injustice or wrong teaching is being

perpetrated, what can a Christian do? “Not
cancelling doesn’t mean you accept every
single secular idea,” she explained. “Discern
and di"erentiate between the person and the
idea.

So should Christians be angry?

“In the Bible, most instances when Jesus

became angry had to do with self-righteous,
woke people, namely the Pharisees. On several
occasions, they were easily triggered by
something Jesus said that contradicted their
views,” Suzanne pointed out.

In her book, Suzanne explores how God’s

justice as righteousness and love is
demonstrated in the book of Jonah.

Jonah is called by God to be attentive to

injustice, to go to Nineveh and call out against
the great city for their evil ways. But the
thought that God might spare the Ninevites if
they repent angers Jonah.

Yet, the book ends with an insight into God’s

desire to show compassion even on those who
are morally and spiritually corrupt.

How the Church can equip the

saints
The book ends with a call for believers to go
deep in the Word of God.

“Christian wokeness emerges from being

rooted in God’s truth which should be the
primary driver behind the ways we interpret
and respond to culture,” she said.

Having received Christ, believers are called to

continue to grow in maturity through
developing their skills of biblical interpretation.

Churches and church leaders can also help by

equipping their congregations with
fundamental hermeneutical skills, proposed
Suzanne, who is currently doing her Master of
Arts in Theology and Integrative Studies with
the Biblical Graduate School of Theology.

An Associate Professor at the English Language and

Literature department at NIE, NTU, Suzanne is also
the mother of one.

Suzanne recognised that many Christians still

think of such deep study as something you only
do in seminary. But “if you’re not deepening
your knowledge, understanding, and your
hermeneutical skills, it becomes easy to be
a"ected by the ways of the world,” she said.

“When one is rooted to God’s Word, one stands

on solid ground and becomes less easily taken
in and shaken by the trends of the world.”

However, one key challenge today is the

combination of wokeism with postmodern
skepticism and post-truth. Her book explores
the importance of sustaining an orientation
towards truth even when truth is under attack
in the world.

“There is a need for church leaders to train lay

people to be more discerning, to train them in
interpretive literacy,” she observed.

One suggestion she made was for pastors to, on

occasion, “let their congregation understand
how they arrived at a particular interpretation
of scripture and the skills and processes
involved.”

Suzanne called on believers to develop a habit

of double interpretation as they approach new
information: “First we need to learn to read
culture and discern its worldly philosophies.
Then we read the world through the Word.”

She said, “In this way, our acts of social justice

can flow from the ways we learn to see the
world through God’s eyes and heart.”

When Woke Goes Broke is available here.

Suzanne will be giving a lecture on the topic of
Christianity and Wokeism on October 24 at
Bible House, 7.30-9pm.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Theresa Tan

God gave Theresa one

talent: the ability to
write. Today, she uses
that one gift to share
His goodness as far and
wide as she can. When
she's not working with
words, this mother of
three is looking for
TikTok baking trends to
try, watching Korean
drama and making fun
of her cats.

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